Orlando City and New York City FC went through one of the wildest penalty shootouts in recent memory. It started with what looked like a match-winning save by Orlando’s goalkeeper. The team and coach started celebrating and the coach even ran down the tunnel thinking it was over. But officials ruled the keeper came off his line early. Since he already had a yellow, the infraction earned him a second one and a red card. That set off total confusion.
The backup keeper came in as a sub, but rules don’t allow for field subs during penalties unless someone’s injured. So after some back and forth with the officiating crew, they made Orlando remove the sub and pick someone already on the field. A defender stepped up to put on the gloves. The backup tried to go back in again but got pulled a second time. Meanwhile, delay after delay left the New York kicker iced before finally converting to send the shootout into sudden death.
From there, things stayed wild. The defender-turned-goalie guessed wrong on one but later made a diving save to keep Orlando alive. New York complained he came off his line too, but the VAR review said it was clean. Orlando still had to score, and they did. Game over, for real this time. Orlando advanced in the playoffs after one of the most chaotic ends to a match in MLS history.